Upstate New York Trip, May 21-27, 2022
On Saturday, May 21, Candace and I started a vacation in upstate New York which was followed by a trip to Wooster, Ohio to help Candace’s mom celebrate her 95th birthday. The Ohio part of the trip is in a separate page.
The plan: Saturday: drive to Newark, NY (on the Erie Canal), stay in the Vintage Gardens B&B. Sunday: bicycle on the canal path to Weedsport, stay in a Rodeway Inn. Monday: bicycle back the Vintage Gardens B&B. Tuesday: drive to Macedon, NY, start boating on the Erie Canal on a rented boat. Wednesday and Thursday: continue boating on the canal. Friday: return the boat to Macedon by 9 am and drive to Wooster.
The Vintage Gardens B&B was extremely nice and the service was great. After arriving we walked a few blocks to dinner where we met Dean and Elaine - also cyclists and also staying at the Vintage Gardens! I think they overheard us talking about our trip and decided to introduce themselves. They are from Los Altos, CA and were cycling along the canal, planning to finish in Syracuse. After some discussion with them, Candace decided she really wanted to see the Women’s Rights Museum in Seneca Falls. Also, there was the threat of rain, so we decided to drive to Seneca Falls, where we toured the museum and the town in general, then met Dean and Elaine, and Don and Nanci from Florida - another cycling couple! - for lunch. We had met Don and Nanci at the B&B the evening before and all 6 of us had breakfast together. After lunch we drive to Auburn where we visited the William Seward House and Harriet Tubman’s house and grave. Then we drove to the Rodeway Inn in Weedsport (named after a man whose last name was “Weeds”).
On Monday, we cycled from Weedsport to Clyde (lunch) and back and then drove to Vintage Gardens, where we stayed overnight and then off to Macedon to start our boat adventure!
We needed to stock up on food and drink for the boat trip, so we were looking for a suitable store around Palmyra when we came across the site where Joseph Smith was “visited by the Angel Moroni” and founded Mormonism. Candace wanted to go in. I warned her, but she went in anyway. When she finally escaped, she said something like “that was scary.”
I’ve occasionally wondered about the fact that the women’s movement and Mormonism (which had polygamy at the time) started at about the same place at about the same time!
Tuesday, we arrived at Erie Canal Adventures in early afternoon and received “classroom training” and then “hands on training” for a good part of the afternoon. You have to learn how to control the speed of the boat, steer it, how to go through locks and how to dock. Docking is one of the harder things to do as you have to be able to “parallel park” the boat in case dock space is short. When we finally got underway it was fairly late and we only made it as far as Fairport before docking. We had a hell of a time docking because our “bow thrusters” didn’t work. Fortunately other people at the dock were friendly and helpful and we made it. Turns out bow thrusters time out after not being used for a while.
Wednesday, we made it to Spencerport getting more and more used to driving the boat as we went. There were locks and lift bridges to contend with and sometimes other boats. We ate lunch on the boat. Thursday, we went back to Fairport, stopping at Pittsford for lunch. Just as we started, we had to “pull over” to allow a barge to pass! Friday, we returned the boat at about 8:30 am.
The next step was to drive to Wooster to visit Candace’s Mom. Even though it was a rainy day, we decided to go through Letchworth State park on the way. This park has an impressive canyon and several sets of falls.
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